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RSSActs of God
by The Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
9/25/2005
Yet you say, "The way of the Lord is unfair." Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair? -- Ezekiel 18:25-26
An "Act of God" is what something like Hurricane Katrina or the Indian Ocean tsunami is called in the language of insurance policies. If you smoke in bed and burn your house down, it's your own dumb fault, but you're probably covered. If somebody breaks in and makes off with your TV, you're covered. If somebody trips over a footstool and breaks his ankle at your Christmas party, you're covered, even if he was feeling no pain and wearing a lampshade on his head and couldn't see where he was going. But the misfortunes that don't arise from human folly are Acts of God, and you may have a problem.
Does God make the weather? The earthquake? Yes: however you think such things come to be, they certainly are not the result of human agency. But does God target them at specific cities or groups of people? The ancient writers of scripture thought so, but most of us have moved on from that. And most of us know something else: human folly may not author a natural disaster, but it can sure make it worse.
These matters are for government and political activists to change. But, for Episcopal Relief and Development and all who must respond first to disaster, they can never be the immediate concern: we must take care of the people, the wise and the foolish, those who knew better and those who didn't. Whose fault made a bad situation worse is an important question, but it cannot be our question. What we must do now is get people to safety, get them housed, get them medical care and food and help local leaders prepare for the long haul of reclaiming their homes and their livelihood.
A sudden crisis stops being sudden right away; it becomes an ongoing ache of need and more need. ERD is experienced at responding. The local dioceses with whom we work always know their people and their resources and their needs better than anyone from far away ever could.
Whose fault was Hurricane Katrina? Whose fault was the tsunami? ERD is too busy right now to spend much time pondering that question, but one thing is certain: the strong, loving, national response to the needs of the people on the Gulf Coast is surely an Act of God.
I am indebted for the germ of this "Acts of God" meditation to a sermon preached this past Sunday by the Rev'd. Jonathan Percival of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Metuchen, NJ.
